EVANSVILLE — Animal welfare activists will be in Warrick County court again on Tuesday when the mother of convicted serial animal abuser Shayna Burko could potentially plead guilty to her own animal cruelty charges.
There’s no official indication in online court records that Kimberley Burko, 62, will plead guilty. But MyCase, an online database of records from civil and criminal cases within the Indiana court system, indicates Kimberley Burko’s planned July 7 jury trial was canceled and she will have a “change of plea hearing” at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Circuit Judge Greg A. Granger’s courtroom.
Her daughter, Shayna Burko, pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” before being sentenced to four years in prison in June.
Supporters and activists of the Vanderburgh Humane Society will be there, said VHS Director of Advancement Amanda Coburn.
“Just to make it clear that our community doesn’t tolerate cruelty and neglect and behavior like that,” Coburn said. “We will be there in some capacity.”
There was a time, before the first of Shayna Burko’s three animal cruelty cases in 2018, when VHS saw her and Kimberley Burko as part of its extended family of animal lovers and supporters. VHS staff and volunteers knew and liked the Burkos.
“(Shayna Burko) had adopted several animals from us over the years,” Coburn said last month. “I don’t know when (the Burkos) started, but 2015, 2016, and then in 2017, they had been visitors. We knew them. They were very nice.”
Kimberley Burko is charged with three counts of cruelty to an animal, a Level 6 felony because she has a previous conviction on the same offense. The case to which Burko will potentially plead guilty Tuesday is the same case involving the same charges for which Shayna Burko received her prison sentence. The two women shared a home in January 2025 when the charges were brought.
Warrick County prosecutors would not negotiate with either of the Burkos, so Kimberley Burko could also receive an active prison sentence when she goes before Granger — the same judge who sent Shayna Burko to prison — on Tuesday.
But there are differences.
Shayna Burko had not one, but two previous animal cruelty convictions and one of them involved her pleading guilty to seven felony counts. Prosecutors said Shayna Burko abused and neglected at least 70 animals over nearly a decade and left many of them to suffer slow, agonizing deaths.
“She basically just leaves them in the house and goes on her way,” Deputy Prosecutor Jon Schaefer said in court last month.
Kimberley Burko has no prior felony animal cruelty convictions. She does have a conviction on a lower charge, though.
When Shayna Burko was convicted a second time on seven felony animal cruelty charges in 2023 in a case involving malnourished and dismembered animals, Kimberley Burko also was hit with seven counts. But her charges were misdemeanors, given that she had no previous animal cruelty convictions.
Shayna Burko got probation in that case, confounding Vanderburgh County prosecutors who had sought prison time for her. Six of Kimberley Burko’s seven misdemeanor counts were dismissed and she pleaded guilty to one as part of a plea arrangement.
In that case, the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office reported officers found “a (dead) German Shepherd in a kennel with bags of dog food next to it, a decapitated dog, a dog missing a paw (but still alive), and a dog limb found in a hallway.”
A Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office report stated that Kimberley and Shayna Burko were living with Kimberley Burko’s mother in Newburgh at the time, but that Kimberley Burko owned the home in Vanderburgh County where the malnourished and dismembered animals were found.
A neighbor told a sheriff’s deputy that he had not seen Kimberley Burko “in three to four weeks.”
‘There were dogs locked in each bedroom’
In the current case — the one for which Kimberley Burko will plead on Tuesday — a Warrick County Sheriff’s Office report dated January 21, 2025, states that an officer arrived at the home shared by the Burkos with a search warrant.
“When I made entry into the house it was in shambles with items broken and thrown everywhere,” the report states. “The floor was covered in feces and the smell of urine burned my eyes and throat as I was breathing.
“I observed very few water dishes out for the amount of dogs that were present. There were dogs locked in each bedroom and dogs running freely around the common area of the home.”
Warrick County Animal Control and the Warrick Humane Society “gathered around 20 dogs, 1 cat, 2 birds, 2 turtles, 2 bearded dragons, 1 gecko, 3 sugar gliders, and several fish,” the report states.
“A dead turtle, several dead fish, and a few dead Guinea pigs were found as well. The Guinea pigs were still in a shipping container with the label showing it was shipped to Kim Burko dated 10/31/2024.”
The difference between Oct. 31, 2024 and January 21, 2025 was 82 days.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Serial animal abuser’s mom will face her day in court in Warrick Co.
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
